Title: Community Participation in Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project in Kyrgyzstan
1- Community Participation in Rural Water Supply and
Sanitation Project in Kyrgyzstan
21. INTRODUCTION
- 1.1 PRESENTATION
- Share the experience of RWSSP in encouraging
Community Participation, Accountability and Non
Discrimination - Will look at
- RWSSP Approach to Community Participation and How
it Encouraged Participation at all Stages of the
Project - Methods Employed by the RWSSP to Strengthen
Longer Term Community Capacity and
Accountability - The Lessons Learnt and Suggestions for Good
Practices - Main Conclusions
3INTRODUCTION
- 1.2 BACKGROUND TO THE RURAL WATER SUPPLY AND
SANITATION PROJECT IN KYRGYZSTAN - Access to clean water is a basic human right.
-
- The Problem since the end of the Soviet Union in
1991, the Kyrgyz government has lacked resources
to provide this service. Many villages have had
no clean drinking water for 15 years -
- Is there an alternative? Can rural people and
their communities address their lack of safety
drinking water and manage its provision
themselves? - The RWSSP
- Worked with 200 villages in 3 northern Kyrgyzstan
to re-habilitated their water supply and
sanitation systems between 2002-2008 Financial
and technical assistance provided by DFID and the
World Bank. - INTRAC supported local CD Team, recruited from
NGOs, to implement awareness raising, community
mobilization etc
4Kyrgyz Republic
5HOW THE RWSSP ENCOURAGED COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION
- 2.1. COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION
- The RWSSP has actively encourage, the
participation of the whole village community in
decision making, information campaign, planning,
construction, operation management, and,
monitoring of the WSS. - Participation and involvement of local people are
basic principles which are relevant to improving
local governance and citizens use of public
resources. - Communities participated in the following ways
and stages of re-habilitating their WSS
62.2 RAISING COMMUNITY AWARENESS
- Information campaign (IC)
- CD Team in cooperation with Local Self Government
provided Information meetings with the wide
participation of the representatives of the
communities, Aiyl Okmoty (Village
Administration), Local Parliament, NGOs and Mass
Media at the 14 regional level each year. - Leaflets distributed in all villages and
information disseminated through regional and
country level Mass Media about the project
philosophy and the progress of the RWSSP - Villages interested in tackling their water
problems were encouraged to form and Initiative
Group and send an Expression of Interest to the
RWSSP Project Consultant Unit.
72.3 PARTICIPATORY COMMUNITY APPRAISAL (PCA)
- Letters of Interest used to determine villages to
participate in PCA. Selection done by the
Project Executive Agency-Department of Rural
Water Supply - PCA Implementation CD workers and Engineering
Team in cooperation with Local Administrations
held workshops with 4 district groups of people
in each village the men, women, young people and
school children. There were done separately to
ensue as wide a participation as possible and
also to ensure different voices (especially those
of women, school children) could be heard. - Methods these Workshops used variety of
Participatory Community Appraisal exercises to
help the groups to identify major village issues,
the extent to which access to clean water was a
problem and the willingness of the population to
address it.
82.4 Community Mobilization to set up Community
Drinking Water Users Union (CDWUU)
- Community mobilization activities in the street
level -
- Selection to Participate in RWSSP The villages
which had severe water problems and showed clear
interest in addressing them were selected to
participate and assisted to mobilize the entire
village. - Initial Community Mobilization was done to help
the village to create the CDWUU was done using a
bottom-up approach. CD Team in cooperation with
Village Initiative Group (VIG), held series of
community awareness raising meetings in each
quarters and streets of the village about the
project philosophy and CDWUU draft charter. - CD workers with VIG encouraged consensus in
community before holding village Constituent
Assembly in creation of CDWUU and election of its
Board.
9- Street level meeting in the remote rural village
Namatbek in Talas oblast, Kyrgyzstan
102.5 The Village Constituent Assembly to set up
CDWUU
- Village Constituent Assembly (VCA) is the village
meeting made up by the household representatives.
During quarter/street level meetings villagers
elected their members to participate at the VCA.
- Role of VCA approves the CDWUU Charter and
elects the CDWUU Chair and other members of the
CDWUU Board as well as the Audit Commission . - Wider Support CD Team with Local Village
Administration supported the village to organize
the VCA and subsequently to help CDWUU register
with the government. -
112.6 COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN CASH CONTRIBUTION
- Raising Cash Contribution The CD workers
assisted the CDWUU and Local Administration to
organize to raise community 5 cash contribution
towards the cost of re-habilitation their water
system. - Most effective and efficient way to mobilize
collection was to do this by quarter
(neighborhood) and/or clan level. Often people in
the village are from different clans getting the
people from each clan to collect the contribution
from households in the quarter level or clan
worked well. - Contributing towards the cost of the WSS, was one
of way of encouraging a sense of ownership by the
village, which is vital to determining the long
term sustainability of the WSS. - CD workers assisted CDWUU to adopt methods to
ensure financial accountability e.g give
receipts to households for contributions,
display on information boards showing the 5
collection rate ets.
122.7 Ensuring Community envolement in the Design
and Construction of WSS
- Design Community worked with the Engineering
Team on the preliminary design of WSS. After
discussion with villagers, the Design Engineering
Team (DET) made the detailed design taking in to
the consideration of comments made by the
villages. - Tendering detailed design (DD) submitted to the
State Commission of Executive Agency (EA) who
organized the tender process. Representatives of
CDWUUs and Village Administrations participated
in the Tendering Committee - Signing Contract CDWUUs signed the agreement
with contractor to re-habilitate the their rural
water supply systems. - In kind contribution, inspection and handover of
WSS Villagers participated in the implementation
of 15 in-kind contribution, the inspection of
the completed water system and were handed over
the re-habilitated water system from the
contractor. -
-
132.8 COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN TARIFF SETTING FOR
WATER
- Setting Water Tariffs In cooperation with
Financial Experts, CD Workers encouraged the
CDWUUs and its local partners to set up draft
CDWUUs budget and calculate the monthly water
tariff. - Consultation with Community on Tariffs
Initially, the CDWUUs draft budget and water
tariff were distributed the households for their
comments. - Approval of Budget and Tariffs The draft CDWUUs
budget have been discussed and approved with the
comments of people at the CDWUUs General
Assembly. - Contracts with water users the CD workers with
Financial Experts encouraged the CDWUUs to sign
agreements with households, village institutions
and private enterprises concerning their monthly
payment of water tariff.
142.9 ENSURING COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT IN OM OF
WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM
- The size and scale of the CDWUUs job to run,
maintain, and manage the village WSS,proved
greater and more time consuming task than the
CDWUU had ever imagined (some WSSs served more
than 2000-3000 inhabitants), - Solution decentralize management of the WSS to
in the Tap Stand level. - Household around the communal Tap Stand in the
street level (there are 6 -7 HH around 1 tap
stand) were asked to form Tap Stand Committees
(TSC) and choose 2 TSC Leaders (1 women 1man).
153. Methods Used by RWSSP to Strengthening
Community Capacity and accountability
- In Soviet time, all services, including water,
were provided by the government - As a result, community capacity weak
- In this section, we look at the Methods the
RWSSP used to build Community Capacity - Strengthening Community Capacity is necessary to
ensure - The Community can continue to run its WSS
(sustainability) - The CDWUU remains Accountable to its members (the
community) - Marginalised groups are involved (especially
women, communites from isolated rural ares)
16 3.2 PRACTICAL TRAINING AND SUPPORT
- CDWUU Board and staff were given in the following
8 key areas by the CD Team. - Structure, Role, Responsibilities, and
Organization of CDWUU - Mobilizing the Village 5 cash and 15 in-kind
contribution - Financial management (financial procedures and
management) - CDWUUs role in Tendering and Procurement
- Financial management (focusing on setting up
water tariff) - Water Quality Monitoring, Water Safety Plan
- Technical Operation and Management of Water
System - Improvement of Tariff Collection
- Training modules were piloted in 1 or 2 villages
before being rolled out. - The participatory training approach worked best,
though at times, information, a more formal style
of training was used. - Later some of the better established CDWUUs were
invited to participate in the newer CDWUUs
training.
173.3 ENCOURAGING WOMENS PARTICIPATION
- Rural Kyrgystan is a largely traditional and male
dominated society - However, women make up over half the population
- The are also the ones most affected by the
presence or absence of clean drinking water - Ways in which the RWSSP encouraged womens
participation - PCA done separately with the women to ensure
their voices were heard - Women encouraged to be involved in the Community
Mobilisation - Women encouraged to stand for election to the
CDWUU Board - Insisting that half the Tap Stand Committee
members were female - Exposure visits to villages with female CDWUU
Chair
183.4 RESPONSIBLITIES OF TAP STAND COMMITTEES
(TSC) IN OM OF WSS IN TAP STAND LEVEL
Take over the Tap Stands from the contractor Look after Tap Stands Collect Water Tariff Dissemination information about CDWUUs activities among the TSC members Participation in different competitions such as Tap Stand awarded to the International Water Day
193.5 TAP STAND LEVEL COMMITTEES and UNIONS IN
ACTION
203.6 NETWORKING AND CONTINOUS LEARNING
Effective Learning CD Worker found that peer learning is a simple, powerful and successful way for rural people (in this case CDWUU staff) to learn from each other. They encouraged exchange and inter exchange visits between communities and CDWUUs and also building structures for continuous learning and development
Creating Networks The Kyrgyz Alliance for Water and Sanitation (KAWS) has emerged to support the CDWUUs It is vital that networks are initiated by the CDWUUs themselves and not imposed top-down.
213.7 INVOLVEMENT OF VILLAGES IN MONITORING
SUSTAINABILITY OF THEIR WSS
- Regular monitoring of CDWUU sustainability during
the course of the project. The CD workers with
support of Monitoring Specialist created
monitoring tools (Check Lists with scoring, Form
of Action Plan) to asses the following three
areas Organizational, Economical and
Institutional Sustainability of the CDWUU. - Initially, monitoring was done by the project.
Later the CD Team encouraged and trained the
CDWUUs to self monitor as a way of assessing
their own performance and identifying issues to
improve. - The representatives of community, formal and
informal village institutions are expected to
participate in the CDWUUs self-monitoring
process. They score the CDWUUs sustainability,
identify issues and produced action plan to
improve. -
224.1 THE MAIN LESSONS LEARNT
- Getting genuine community participation takes
time, especially in countries where rural people
have not been encouraged to participate and take
initiative - A variety of methods can be used to stimulate
participation and build the confidence of
communities. PCA exercises are useful way to
start as are exchange visits to villages who have
completed and are running their own WSS - Participation can create a sense of ownership by
the community in the infrastructure they create
(in this case, the village WSS). This helps
ensure it will be looked after and will be
sustainable)
234.2 THE MAIN LESSONS LEARNT
- Capacity building helps the village to acquire
the skills and expertise they need top operate
and manage their WSS successfully - Decentralisation of management of the WSS through
the creation of Tap Stand Committees is an
effective way of sharing responsibility for care
of the WSS amongst the community, helps to
improve tariff collection and also CDWUU
accountability - Involvement of women at all stages is essential.
They are the ones most directly affected by the
presence or absence of affordable and safety
water. It is important to find practical ways to
encourage womens participation, to build their
capacity and confidence.
245.1 CONCLUSIONS
- In countries such as Kyrgystan where government
is weak and lacks resource, communities can, with
proper mobilisation and support, provide a
regular supply of clean water to their villages - To ensure the longer term sustainability of
community managed WSS, the following
requirements must be met - Community Participation is essential and the
Community must be involved at all stages of the
process in order to create a strong sense of
ownership in the WSS - All stages must be properly and seriously done
(Needs Assessment, Mobilisation etc) - Participation of the whole community, especially
the women, is essential (they are the most
affected by the presence or absence of clean
water) - It is also necessary to build/strengthen the
capacity of the Community so they have the skills
to run and manage the WSS - The CDWUU must be accountable to the Community
through proper elections to the Board,
involvement of the wider Community (Tap Stand
Committees) in managing the WSS
25THANK YOUfor your attention